PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday allowed a petition challenging the appointment of chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Bannu.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Ejaz Anwar and Justice Kamran Hayat Miankhel heard the petition. It was filed by Jahangir Khan through his counsel, Javed Ghani Advocate.
The petitioner’s counsel informed the court that the provincial Education Department had invited applications for the posts of chairmen of various educational boards. The petitioner had submitted his application through his department.
He told the court that a search and scrutiny committee headed by the provincial education minister had been constituted for the purpose.The committee interviewed several candidates and placed the petitioner’s name, allegedly, at the top of the panel for appointment as chairman of the Bannu education board on merit.
However, he said, the controlling authority, the then chief minister, later returned the summary allegedly due to political influence. He recommended the inclusion of another candidate whose name, allegedly, had not even been approved by the panel.
Subsequently, the candidate was added to the panel as the fourth name, whereas in the case of other boards only three names had been forwarded for each post.The counsel argued that his client had previously served as controller at the Technical Board and had performed his duties efficiently.
The committee had recommended his appointment as chairman after assessing his qualifications and a formal summary was sent to the chief minister.However, the controlling authority returned the summary with the observation that the name of the Sifatullah, incumbent chairman, should be included.
The counsel said the Establishment Department had allegedly raised objections, but despite this, the recommendation was not implemented.Instead, he said, the earlier summary was suppressed and another summary was forwarded, after which the chief minister approved the appointment of Sifatullah.
He argued that the recommendations of the committee had been ignored, which amounted to injustice to the education system.The counsel questioned how Sifatullah could be appointed chairman when the committee had not recommended his name, adding that if a selection had to be made, it should have been from among the three candidates included in the original panel.
He maintained that the appointment had been made, allegedly, on political grounds as appointments of chairmen in other boards had been made on the recommendations of the search and nomination committee.The counsel requested the court to declare the notification issued on May 13, last year, null and void and direct that the petitioner be appointed chairman.
